France 
In numbers.
38m
Height
OpenStreetMap
2.4m³/s
Average flow
estimate
Mar–May
Nov
Best months
905kW
Water power
estimate
The water at Cascades de Gimel, month by month
It roars from November to May.
The fullest months: from November to May.
- 3.8 m³/sJan
- 2.8 m³/sFeb
- 3.9 m³/sMar
- 4.1 m³/sApr
- 3.6 m³/sMay
- 2.2 m³/sJun
- 0.8 m³/sJul
- 0.7 m³/sAug
- 0.8 m³/sSep
- 1.9 m³/sOct
- 3.3 m³/sNov
- 3.8 m³/sDec
From about 0.65 m³/s in the lowest month to 4.1 m³/s in the highest. Best months to go, with plenty of water and pleasant days: from March to May and November.
Estimate: the timing comes from rain, snowmelt and evaporation (NASA POWER, 1991–2020); the amounts from the river model of HydroATLAS (WaterGAP, 1971–2000). Dams upstream can change the real flow.
Waterfall
Cascades de Gimel is a waterfall in France. The water falls 38 m.
Getting there.
- Navesnearest town · 6.6 km in a straight line
- Parking 120 m awaynearest car park in OpenStreetMap, straight line
- Brive Souillac airport (BVE)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 41 km in a straight lineCar hire at BVE airport (Brive)Discover Cars · Affiliate link↗
- From March to May and Novemberbest months to go (estimate)
Plan your visit
Stay, explore and get there
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
How big is it?
How big it really is.
Height of the drop as mapped in OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors). Buildings and the person are drawn at the same scale.
905 kW
About 2.4 m³/s falling 38 m: the power of the water as it drops.
- enough to power about 226 homes, if it were all turned into electricity
Power of falling water = density × gravity × flow × height. Average flow and height as shown above; an estimate.
Seen from the sky.
8 × 8 km of cloud-free satellite image, with what OpenStreetMap knows around the falls.
N
2 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 8 × 8 km, north up. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
The line follows the river as mapped in OpenStreetMap; heights from the 30 m Copernicus model, which smooths narrow drops — the published height of the falls is the one above.
Around the falls the river drops 195 m in 3.4 km. Here the river runs about 95 m below the lower rim of its valley.
What is around.
- 4viewpointsPuy de Chadon and 3 more
- —waymarked walking routes
- 7car parks
- —swimming spots
- 8picnic sites
- 2toilets
- 10information boards and visitor centres
- —bus stops within 1 km
- 2other named waterfalls within 4 kmLe Grand Saut, La Queue de Cheval
- —caves
- 3campsitesCamping Le Pré du Moulin, Aire de camping/car de Tulle - Auzelou
- 3hotels, B&Bs and huts within 6 kmHotel The Originals Tulle, Le Chant des Sources, Au Bon Accueil
- 3restaurants and cafés within 3 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, up to 2 km around the falls (unless noted). A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Naves6.6 km in a straight line
- Tulle7.0 km in a straight line
- Laguenne8.2 km in a straight line
- Corrèze8.4 km in a straight line
- Sainte-Fortunade12 km in a straight line
- Seilhac13 km in a straight line
- Saint-Clément14 km in a straight line
- Chameyrat14 km in a straight line
Weather
The weather, month by month.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon °C | 6 | 7 | 11 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 26 | 26 | 22 | 17 | 10 | 7 |
| Night °C | 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 1 |
| Rain & snow (mm) | 82 | 59 | 78 | 84 | 92 | 76 | 61 | 70 | 62 | 78 | 86 | 84 |
| Wet days | 14 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 14 |
| Sun h/day | 2.5 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 6.4 | 7.1 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 8.1 | 7.2 | 4.9 | 3.1 | 2.6 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 10 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
Long-term averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, with temperatures carried to the height of the falls (397 m) at −6.5 °C per 1,000 m. Not a forecast.
Recent years
Wet years and dry years
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A wet season above 100 % usually means a fuller waterfall.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 72% | 105% | 99% | 81% | 80% | 140% | 14% | 97% | 125% | 182% | 34% | 181% |
| 2021 | 105% | 118% | 41% | 39% | 111% | 184% | 118% | 33% | 166% | 61% | 57% | 128% |
| 2022 | 37% | 69% | 59% | 73% | 33% | 167% | 25% | 51% | 104% | 46% | 95% | 71% |
| 2023 | 73% | 25% | 105% | 79% | 69% | 143% | 60% | 80% | 73% | 167% | 179% | 176% |
| 2024 | 71% | 152% | 168% | 90% | 165% | 132% | 81% | 33% | 206% | 137% | 64% | 74% |
| 2025 | 89% | 33% | 31% | 57% | 20% | 73% | 22% | 40% | 59% | 59% | 49% | 34% |
130% wetter than usual 70% drier than usual
Compare with the waterfalls nearby.
Cascades de Gimel
France
- 38 mHeight
- 2.4 m³/sAverage flow
- Mar–May, NovBest months
About these numbers
| Names, height, width, river | Wikidata (Q1046886) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| Height of the drop | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| River flow and catchment | HydroATLAS / RiverATLAS v1.0 (Linke et al. 2019) · CC BY 4.0 |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Relief, river profile, 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Paths, viewpoints, parking | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
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